The Marauders Memories
by MsBrightside9
Summary: A story of friendship and coming of age. Before tragedy hit them, before their lives fell apart they were just boys; stupid, reckless teenage boys. And this is their story
1. The Letter

**DISCLAIMER; Sadly I am not, and never will be JK Rowling. This story and all of the characters, places and events in it belong to her. So yeah, don't sue me, I can't afford that. **

The last day of August in London was an extremely hot one and everywhere you looked people could be found fanning themselves with pieces of paper and wiping sweat from their brows. Kingscross Station itself was filled to the brim with overheated, grim looking travelers but through the crowd that moved lethargically came a young boy with jet black hair that stuck out in every direction and a excited grin that was quite the contrast to all the other passengers. A couple trailed a few feet behind the excited boy who pushed a trolley carrying more than a few bizarre items - one of which was an owl in a cage. The boy didn't seem perturbed in the least by the looks he got as he passed by, in fact it was almost as though he enjoyed the attention. However the passengers really only got a few good looks at the young boy and his bizarre luggage before he disappeared from sight and his father soon followed suit. The woman -his mother- however paused for a moment to pick up a letter from the ground before disappearing from sight with the rest of her family.

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
>(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,<br>Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress


	2. Friends, Enemies and Surprises

"James"

"James!"

"James wait up!"

"James watch out!"

"Crap! Sorry!" James Potter barely had time to register his mothers warning before his trolley ran into an unsuspecting boy who tripped over his own trunk in an effort to get out of the way. James stopped in his tracks and looked down at the dark haired boy apprehensively, not to sure how he would react to getting run over. The boy in question didn't seem perturbed in the least and made no moves to stand up from where he'd been knocked over.

"You must be James?" The boy said way as a wide grin lit up his grey eyes.

"James Potter, how did you know?" James asked in mock surprise as he extended a hand to help the other boy to his feet.

"Lucky guess," The boy said, still grinning as he brushed the dirt from his dark robes.

"What's your name?"

"Sirius Black"

"Alright, well Sirius sorry again for knocking you over there," James grin was a sheepish one as his parents managed to catch up to him and his mother gave him a somewhat exasperated look.

"It's no problem, not exactly how I imagined meeting my first person from Hogwarts but I'll get over it." Sirius replied with a shrug.

"You're a first year to?" James hazel eyes lit up happily. Sirius nodded and opened his mouth to respond but any sound he made was cut off by the deafening whistle of the train.

"You boys had better get going, you don't want to miss the train." James' mother spoke quickly and pulled James into a tight hug which he accepted for a moment before slipping away looking more than a little embarrassed.

"Alright, bye Mum, Dad. I'll write you." He said rather quickly as he hugged his father briefly before hopping onto the train behind Sirius, who James noted seemed quite happy to be getting away at last.

"We love you sweetie!" James' cheeks turned pink at his mothers voice.

"Love you too." He mumbled as he turned away from them to Sirius who was grinning broadly and seemed to be enjoying James' embarrassment.

"Do you wanna come find a seat with me, sweetie?" He asked, struggling to keep a straight face.

"Oh shut up."

"Hostile are we sweetie?"

"You're a git."

"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Oh shut up and lets find a compartment." James shoved past Sirius and began walking down the isle of the train, ignoring the stifled sounds of his laughter as he followed closely behind. However, they quickly realized finding an empty compartment was going to be impossible seeing as most of them were filled already.

"What about this one?" James motioned towards a compartment who's only inhabitant was a small, red haired girl curled up against the window.

"I don't know.." Sirius eyed the girl slightly apprehensively, she didn't look happy, in fact he wouldn't be surprised if she was crying and he really didn't want to get roped into having to listen to some weepy girl.

"What are you afraid of talking to girls or something?" James asked, raising his eyebrows mockingly.

"Of course not," Sirius said defensively and immediately pushed past James to slide open the compartment door. "Do you mind if we sit here?" He asked, the girl didn't even bother to tear her gaze away from the window and instead gave a slight jerk of her head which James seemed to take as a yes seeing as he stepped into the compartment and plunked himself down on one of the seats. Sirius took the seat next to him.

"Whats your name?" James asked the girl who didn't answer, and gave no indication that she'd even heard the question. James looked quizzically at Sirius who simply shrugged and mouthed 'Girls' with a baffled expression. James nodded in agreement and decided to change the topic to something more interesting.

"So do you like Quidditch?" He asked.

"Love it, me and my little brother play it all the time."

"Me too! Except I don't have any siblings so I just play it with my dad, it sucks that first years can't have their own brooms. I'm getting one and trying out right away next year." The boys soon became so immersed in their own conversation they didn't even notice as another dark, geasy haired boy slipped into the compartment and started talking to the girl, or at least James didn't notice until he heard something of interest.

"You'd better be in Slytherin" The boy was saying and James scrunched his nose up in distaste.

"Slytherin?!" James couldn't contain himself "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He turned to Sirius for support but the boy had a dark look on his face.

"I don't know... my whole family's been in Slytherin." Sirius replied gloomily.

"Blimey! And I thought you seemed alright!" James made no effort to keep the shock out of his voice.

Sirius simply grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition." His voice gained a hopeful quality to it. "Where are you going if you get the choice?"

James held up an invisible sword. "Gryffindor, 'where dwelve the brave at heart', like my dad."

The greasy haired boy made a small, disparaging noise and James quickly bristled at him.

"Got a problem with that?"

The boy sneered at him "No, If you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"

"Where are you hoping to go seeing as you're neither?" Sirius interjected.

The two of them roared with laughter. The girl however sat up and glared at them, "Come on Severus, let's find a different compartment." The two stood up to leave.

"Ooooo..." James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice and James stuck his foot out in an attempt to trip the greasy haired boy as he left.

"See ya Snivellus!" Sirius called after them causing the pair to once again dissolve into laughter.

"Slytherins," James said disparagingly with a shake of his head when they'd finally stopped laughing.

"You don't have to tell me.. my family's full of them." Sirius scrunched up his face in distaste.

"Yeah what's up with that?" James asked as as he spread out across the now roomier compartment.

"Traditional pureblood family." Sirius groaned "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black" his voice turned mockingly high and he rolled his stormy grey eyes. "They're crazy, the lot of them. I don't think I could survive seven years in Slytherin"

"Well let's hope you don't have to." James replied optimistically.

**-x-**

When the train rolled to a stop at Hogsmead Station James and Sirius were sitting in a large pile of candy wrappers having eaten their way through almost everything that the trolley offered. James had begun to think this had been a bad idea considering the feast that surely awaited them at Hogwarts but Sirius seemed thrilled at the prospect of it.

"I can't wait till dessert, my cousins told me Hogwarts makes the best of everything from pastries to pudding," For the first time since James had met him -which admittedly had only been hours ago- Sirius was speaking about his family without any distaste in his voice, in fact he seemed quite excited that his cousins had deemed the food so good. "Their normal food is good to of course, apparently they have pretty much everything you could every want at _every _meal!"

James grinned at his friends enthusiasm and was about to open his mouth to respond when a great shadow loomed over the boys. "You firs' years?" James eyes widened as he took in the huge man with a shaggy beard a lantern bigger than James' head. "Well are ya?" The man repeated a little louder, as if thinking they hadn't heard him. Sirius nodded quickly.

"Who are you?" James asked, pulling himself up to his full -yet short- height.

The man chuckled in amusement and smiled down at the boys. "My name's Hagrid, I'm the groundskeeper. Now do ya wanna get ter the castle er not?"

"Course we do."

"Well follow me then." Hagrid replied as he turned away and started yelling over the crowd of students. "Firs' years! Firs' years o'er 'ere! Come on now, Firs years!" The crowd of older students parted easily for the huge man as he walked down the station with the first years trailing behind him. James and Sirius having recovered from their shock were now right behind the man and looking up at him with a sort of awe as he ushered the group of eleven year-olds away from the station. They followed him down a narrow path and most of the first years remained quiet as they concentrated on getting down the steep path in the dark. James and Sirius snickered slightly as a small, chubby boy tripped and would have fallen down the rest of path if Hagrid hadn't picked him up like he weighed no more than a pillow. "Mind yer step," he warned as he set the now flustered boy back down on the ground and led the students around a bend where the path widened at the edge of a still, black lake lit by a fleet of little boats each equipped with a lantern.

Gasps filled the air as the students caught their first glimpse of their new home: situated atop a cliff was a castle with many turrets, its windows sparkled majestically against the night sky.

"Alrigh, yeh'll get a better look soon." Hagrid called, "Come on now, no more'n four to a boat."

James and Sirius raced towards the edge of the lake, James reached the boat first and clambered in with a wide grin. "I win," he announced as he grabbed the lantern from Sirius. They were soon joined by a sandy haired girl leading the chubby haired boy who's cheeks were still pink from the embarrassment of his fall.

"I'm Mary Macdonald." The girl said softly, her blue eyes fixed on the castle ahead as the boat began to move.

"P-Peter Pettigrew," The chubby boy managed to get out.

"James Potter," James replied with a grin, his hazel eyes flickered to Sirius who was to focused on staring at the black water to introduce himself. "And that's Sirius Black."

With that the boat fell into silence which wasn't broken until Sirius, with a wicked grin on his face pointed to the water below them excitedly. "Quick come look at this!" The three other students rushed to were he was seated but he was already moving towards the other side of the boat. "No it's over here now!" he cried and the three rushed to that side causing the boat to shift dangerously beneath them as Peter once again lost his balance and toppled head first into the lake.

He came up wide eyed and terrified "What is it? What's in the water?!" But Sirius was to busy howling in laughter to respond. James joined in quickly as he realized the whole thing had been a joke, Mary seemed exasperated with the two of them and Petter, soaking wet as Hagrid pulled him from the water and plopped him down in the boat, looked as though he'd seen a ghost.

"Oh cheer up Petey! It was a joke." Sirius said cheerfully and slapped the smaller boy on the back encouragingly.

"Think of the bright side: you're soaking wet and everyone's going to be looking at you now." James added brightly.

Peter gulped as if that was the last thing in the world he would want.

**-x-**

"Thank you Hagrid, I can take it from here," The doors of the castle had opened to reveal a dark haired witch dressed in emerald robes, wearing a stern expression as she surveyed the new students through almost cat-like eyes. The students filed into the Entrance Hall with varying degrees of awe on their faces as they took in the impossibly high ceilings and giant marble staircase, any whisperings caused by these sights were quickly halted by a stern look from the witch.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, I am Professor McGonagall." The witch said "In a few moments I shall lead you through those doors" She pointed to a set of doors so large they rivaled the entrance to the castle. "And you will be Sorted into your houses. While at Hogwarts these houses will be like your family-"

"God I hope not," Sirius whispered quietly enough so only James could ear.

"- you will have class with your house, eat with your house and spend your free time in your house common room. For those of you who do not know, the four houses are Gryffindor," James beamed brightly "Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin," Sirius gulped nervously. "Your triumphs will earn points for your house while any rulebreaking will lose you points. At the end of the year the house with the most points will be awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be an asset to whatever house you join." She paused for a moment to allow her words to sink in.

"Any questions?" The room remained silent but for the nervous shuffling of feet.

"Splendid, now if you will follow me.. your houses await you." With that she turned on her heel and strode towards the doors which swung open for her.

The Great Hall was lit by hundreds and hundreds of candles that all seemed to be floating in mid-air, there were four long tables filled with students who's heads all turned to watch as Professor McGonagall lead the first year students down the middle of the hall and up to the podium. She stopped when she reached a stool with a worn hat sitting atop it.

"Now when I call your name, you will come forward and be sorted into your new house." She announced to the students, some of whom were looking rather bewildered. "Abbott, Jeremy." The first name rang through the silence in the hall and a dark haired, nervous looking boy took a seat on the stool and had the hat placed on his head. Hardly a second later a second passed before the hat made it's decision.

"HUFFLEPUFF" It roared and the table to the right of the students erupted in cheers.

As the names were read of the list James found himself losing patience with the whole thing and it wasn't until he heard "Black, Sirius" that his attention snapped back to the sorting ceremony. James gave an extremely nervous looking Sirius an encouragingly smile which he returned halfheartedly as he made his way up to the stool and sat down. James crossed his fingers tightly.

_Ahh another Black, I've seen many of you before. _

Sirius cringed and shut his eyes _Please no, I'm not like the rest of them_

_No your not, that's quite plain here_

_Gryffindor, please put me in Gryffindor_

_Ahh Gryffindor, you would do well there - brave and reckless you are_

_Not Slytherin, please anything but Slytherin_

_You're quite right, Slytherin doesn't fit you in the least_

Sirius' eyes shot open hopefully

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared and the entire hall fell into an awkward silence. The Slytherins looked murderous, the Gryffindors looked shocked and bewildered while everyone else didn't seem to know what to think.

"Oh thank Merlin I'm not stuck with my family," Sirius exclaimed a little louder than he meant to. For a moment the entire hall seemed to become even quieter and Sirius had a terrible thought that maybe, maybe the Gryffindors wouldn't want a Black in their midst. But then the table in question erupted into roars of laughter and sprung from their seats as the dark haired boy ran down to join them. But not before stopping to high five a boy with messy black hair and an unabashed grin.

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places or events in this story. It all belongs to the Harry Potter Franchise and JK Rowling**


	3. Regarding Remus

Remus didn't seem to fit the picture of a typical Gryffindor first year and that was, perhaps how he managed to go so long without being noticed. This was precisely the way Remus wanted things to be, after all when no one noticed you when you were there they definitely wouldn't notice you when you _weren't _there. Yes going noticed suited Remus completely fine. Or so he liked to tell himself.

Truthfully it was hard to watch the other students growing closer and forming fast friendships while he remained completely and utterly alone. And though he didn't like to admit it, it had stung when no one had noticed his absence that first month, when he hadn't gotten to use one of his carefully compiled excuses. Really it was a foolish thing to dwell on, Remus knew that. Of course he hadn't really expected to make friends at Hogwarts, he'd known he would have to stay away from the spotlight, but he'd gone his whole life without friends so he thought it would be a simple thing to do. He was wrong. Being friendless and locked away was one thing, being friendless and surrounded by people who ignored you was a completely different thing, and it was much, much harder than he had ever imagined.

Of course maybe he was being a little dramatic, it wasn't like he was _completely _unnoticed. His dorm mates noticed him, they knew his name, or at least they did most of the time. Sirius always called him a variety of different things from Reagan to Lypan. That was when he spoke to him at all, mostly Remus tried to stay away from his roommates. They were loud, outgoing and already, in their first month of school the center of attention half the time - or at least James and Sirius were. The other boy, Peter just seemed to follow the other two around and to Remus' surprise James and Sirius didn't seem perturbed in the least by this. In fact it was quite the contrary, they seemed to genuinely enjoy the chubby boys company, although maybe that was only because he provided an adoring audience for their endless antics.

Either way, those boys were definitely not the type he could be friends Remus knew without a doubt.

"Boo!" A voice interrupted Remus' thoughts and he let out a shriek of surprise and jumped off his bed. There, standing with a pillowcase over his head with two shabby eyeholes cut in it and peering through the curtains of the four poster bed was another boy.

"What the heck was that?" Remus demanded, his posture relaxing slightly as he recognized the grey eyes that belonged to Sirius Black beneath the white material.

"That, my dear Rufus, was my magnificent imitation of a ghost," Sirius announced happily as he tugged off the pillow case and let it fall to the floor.

"I would hardly call a pillow case over your head magnificent," Remus replied. "I mean you could have at least used an entire sheet."

Sirius grinned "I could have... but I didn't think Peter would appreciate me cutting holes in his sheets."

Remus' mouth dropped open "That was Peter's pillowcase?!"

"Maybe," Remus opened his mouth to respond but Sirius cut him off. "That's beside the point really. The pillow case worked just fine and has anyone ever told you that you scream like a little girl?" He asked, still grinning.

"I do not!"

"Do too, are you sure your name is even Ringo? I think it might be Rebecca." Sirius stated and flopped back on Remus' bed.

"My name isn't Ringo!"

"Aha! So you're admitting you're a girl!" Sirius jumped off the bed and pointed at Remus accusingly.

"No! My name is Remus!" Remus was beginning to lose patience but the other boy just seemed to be enjoying this.

"Remus? What kind of name is that?" Sirius looked puzzled.

"MY NAME!" Remus roared causing a startled Sirius to take a few steps back.

"Woah there," He said, holding his hands up in a surrendering gesture. "Alright, whatever you say Lypan"

Remus groaned and collapsed onto the bed with his head in his hands. "Err, Lypan?" Maybe, just maybe if he ignored the voice it would just go away, and leave him be. Was that to much to ask? Really they'd left him to complete silence for this first month of school so why was Sirius so intent on getting his attention now? In fact if he hadn't been so exasperated by the whole name situation a part of Remus might have even been a little bit happy that Sirius had even _thought _to scare him, it was the most attention anyone had paid to him since he got here. Well, anyone besides the teachers who all watched him like hawks it was unnerving really, having them-

An insistent tapping on Remus' shoulder brought him out of his thoughts, that and the sound of Sirius voice. "Remus? Remus Lypan?" Remus groaned.

"My name isn't Lypan either." He grumbled almost inaudibly

"Sorry what was that?" The tapping had stopped.

Remus slowly brought his head out of his hands. "I said," He began, his blue eyes locking to the grey ones in a way that almost made serious shrink away "My name isn't Lypan either. It's Remus _Lupin_."

Sirius grinned sheepishly. "Oh, sorry."

"Don't be, it's not like anyone knows me."

"Hey don't be like that, it's just me. For the first week of school I thought James' last name was Porter. I'm horrible names. I'm sure you have loads of friends like.. erm, well... isn't there.." Sirius trailed off and frowned as the realization dawned on him that he had never seen Remus in the company of anyone at all really. Remus raised his eyebrows in a 'I told you so' expression but Sirius refused to be beat and just grinned brightly. "Well, it's only the first month, I'm sure you're going to make loads of friends."

Remus rolled his eyes at that "Yeah right. I'll make friends when Peter is observant enough to notice the holes in his pillow case" He replied sarcastically.

"Don't be such a downer Lypan" Sirius replied brightly.

Remus groaned "My name isn't Lypan."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't." Remus snapped

"Now you're just messing with me, Lypan."

"No I'm not, Black"

"Yes you are, Lypan."

"My name is Lupin!"

"No it isn't"

"Yes it is"

"No it isn't, Lupin's the name I kept calling you and Lypan's what you told me it really was."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes I am Sirius" Sirius replied with a broad grin

"You can't be serious.." Remus obviously didn't pick up on the joke.

"I most certainly am Sirius, would you like me to get my birth certificate to prove it?"

"What does that ha-" Remus rolled his eyes and whacked Sirius over the head with his pillow. "That is such a lame joke, I can't believe you used it."

"Hey I thought it was pretty clever." Sirius complained and rubbed the back of his head. "See this is why you have no friends, you're violent and you can't appreciate a great joke."

"It was a bad joke," Remus said defensively.

"Maybe," Sirius admitted "But you're still violent and friendless which is why I, being the lovely person I am have decided to help make you some friends." With that Sirius stood up and walked out of the dormitory.

"I don't want your help," Remus called after him

"To bad, Ringo." The voice was faint from the stairwell but nevertheless Remus groaned and flopped backwards onto his bed.

What had he gotten himself into?

**-x-**

Later that night Remus sat alone in the dorm room, reading through a book he'd taken out from the library. His peace and quiet was soon interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming up the stairway. Remus quickly shut off the light and dove under the covers with his eyes shut tight, silently praying that if he pretended to be asleep he wouldn't have to speak to his roommates.

"ARRGG!" There was a distinct thudding sound of a body hitting the ground mixed with the snickers of boys. "Geez, why is it so dark here?" Remus opened his eyes a tiny bit and saw it was James who had fallen and was now getting up.

"Probably because he's sleeping," Remus shut his eyes as Peter motioned towards him and the three boys turned to look at him.

"Ladies and gentlemen meet the only kid in the world who goes to a boarding school and still listens to their bedtime." That was definitely Sirius speaking and he could hear the other two laughing.

"There's no ladies here.."

"Now, now James just because Petey here isn't the prettiest flower in the patch doesn't mean he isn't a lady."

"Hey!" Peter protested, shouting so loud Remus opened his eyes and for a second he thought Sirius had seen him, but he quickly went back to fake sleeping. "I'm no girl!" Peter was still defending himself.

"Of course you aren't..." It was James' voice now. "You're far to scared of girls to actually be one." Someone -probably Sirius- snickered and Remus could just imagine Peter sticking his lower lip out in a pout.

"Oh come on Petey we're just messing with you."

"Yeah we don't actually think you're a girl."

"Despite the overwhelming evidence."

"Shut up, Sirius. You git." That was definitely James. Surprisingly Sirius did as he was told and they fell into silence, Remus assumed they must have been getting into bed because the room went black once again and he started to drift off to sleep.

"Hey! Why are their holes in my pillow case?" Peter yelled, pulling Remus out of his sleepy state.

Sirius chuckled

"I guess it's time for you to make some friends now Ringo."

**-x-**

Transfiguration was one of Remus' favourite classes, well if he was being honest he liked pretty much every class. Having thought he would never even be allowed to come to the school Remus had a completely different level of appreciation towards all the teachers and subjects than his fellow classmates had. But still there was something about Transfiguration that enthralled Remus, it probably had something to do with his own, monthly transformation but he didn't like to dwell on that to much.

Right now Remus was keeping his head down at the back of the class and taking notes furiously as Professor McGonagall spoke, but paying attention to her was getting harder and harder as he could feel someone repeatedly throwing things at the back of his head. Finally when a rather large piece of paper hit him in the back of the head he was just about to tell the thrower to buzz off when writing on the page caught his eye and he couldn't help but open it.

_Could you stop taking notes for a second? I don't think I can be friends with a nerd._

Remus scowled and looked over his shoulder at a grinning Sirius Black and James Potter. It was a pretty evident from his run in with Sirius last night which one of them had written the note. He turned back to face the front and scribbled a response.

_Whoever said we were friends, Black?_

It seemed like only a second later that he got a response.

_James did._

Remus rolled his eyes.

_Well you can tell James that we most certainly are not friends._

He could hear one of the boys snickering as they read his response. A moment later he felt a tap on his shoulder.

_You wound me, Ringo. How can you treat me like this after all I've done for you?_

Remus couldn't help but laugh at the response but quickly covered it with a cough as Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows at him.

_What have you done for me besides consistently get my name wrong?_

The reply was almost instantaneous.

_If you must know, me and James searched the entire school for a friend for you._

The handwriting changed to what Remus assumed was James'.

_But we couldn't find anyone desperate enough so me, being the generous soul I am told Sirius here that we would just have take the curse and do it ourselves._

The handwriting changed back.

_And so, consider yourself no longer 'Loner Lupin' Also you might want to look up right about now because Minnie's probably figured out this isn't a note on her class._

Remus' head snapped up and sure enough Professor McGonagall was heading down the isle towards him with her hand outstretched. "Mr. Lupin, I'd like you to hand that over." Remus gulped and the boys behind him snickered as she snatched the paper off the desk, took one look at it and crumpled it. "Detention, tonight at 8:00pm sharp. Potter, Black you can join him."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off.

"I'd know your abysmal writing anywhere, Mr. Black"

**-x-**

Remus pulled his cloak tight around him as he walked towards the hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the early October wind bit bitterly at the exposed skin of his face and he was almost glad he'd soon be serving detention, sheltered by the trees. Almost, but not quite. Remus had never had a detention before and he certainly hadn't planned on getting one in the second week of school. He reached the gamekeepers hut and stood outside shivering as he debated whether or not he should knock. After a few moments the cold won out and he clambered up the steps to the hut. A second after he knocked the door swung open to reveal Hagrid, his huge figure casting weird shadows as he ushered Remus inside.

"Hullo ther Remus, come on in. The o'her boys outta be ere soon"

Remus was thankful for the warmth of the hut as he stepped inside and took a seat on an empty chair awkwardly, not knowing what to say, or if he should say anything at all for that matter. He accepted the tea Hagrid offered him with a word of thanks and sipped it quietly.

"So yer the werewolf huh?" Remus choked on his tea at Hagrids matter-of-fact tone. Of course all the teachers and staff knew, but none of them had ever been so forward about it.

"Sorry, didn't mean ta startle ye," Hagrid apologized quickly, patting Remus on the back so hard the frail boy almost fell off his chair. "Just makin' conversation."

"Err it's fine sir, it's just no one really talks about it." Remus murmured.

"Don't call me ser, it's jus' Hagrid," He corrected swiftly and Remus nodded shakily. "Anyway, course they don't. Don't want nobody findin' out now do they? Makes sense. People get all jumpy 'bout those things for no reason. I reckon Dumbledore musta really stuck his neck out ter get you in school."

"Uhm, yeah he did." Remus replied awkwardly and was thankful when their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Hagrid bustled over to it and opened it up. James and Sirius stepped inside with matching grins.

"Nice to see you again Hagrid-," James greeted cheerily.

"-it be nicer if it wasn't for detention though" Sirius mused.

"You don't reckon you could just let us stay here?"

"It's bloody cold out," Sirius pointed out. Hagrid merely chuckled and shook his head.

"Sorry boys, ye know them rules. This one ain't to bad, we just need ta find some unicorn hair for Slughorn, he reckons he's running low." Hagrid grabbed the lantern from the middle of his table and held the door open once again. "Come on."

James, Sirius and Remus filed outside of the cabin and followed closely behind Hagrid. Remus looked miserable as James and Sirius stood on either side of him, nudging and prodding him with questions of: "Are we friends yet?"

They weren't overly far into the woods when something caught Remus' eye. "What's that Hagrid?" He asked pointing towards the tree.

"Relax, it's just a tree Remus, the woods are full of them." James laughed

"Yeah it's the spiders you need to worry about-" Sirius grinned

"Well that and the vampires," James interjected.

"Right, and the centaurs, they can be nasty."

"Not as bad as the sphinx's"

"Wasn't their a dragon in here, James?"

"I reckon there was, ghosts too-"

"-and not friendly ones like in the castles."

"Maybe even some Inferi,"

"Don't forget about the werewolves," Remus stiffened as the other two boys howled into the night.

"Gits, it's not even a full moon," Remus said and stepped towards the tree. "And I was talking about what's on the tree." He plucked a few silver strings off the tree and turned back to James and Sirius who were looking slightly abashed.

"Whoops," James said sheepishly as Hagrid came walking back down the path towards them.

"Oh good ye've found some, shouldn't take us much longer to get the rest," Hagrid said as he took the unicorn hairs from Remus and turned to lead them down the path again. It didn't take them much longer to find a sufficient amount of unicorn hair and soon they were on their way back out of the forest with no incident; that was until Remus' keen ears picked up the sound of something moving, rather quickly towards them.

"What's that?" He asked, alarmed.

"What's what?" James asked, looking at Remus as though he was crazy.

"I hear something..."

"All I can hear are your attempts to scare us." Sirius remarked and turned to continue walking down the path with James, and Hagrid a little ahead. Remus followed them apprehensively and tried to block out the noise.

"I think I just heard something too," Remus jumped a little at the sound of James' voice.

"What are you in on it to now? Is this payback for me dying you robes pi-ARRRGH RUNN!" Sirius calm demeanor turned panicky as his eyes found the shape of a large, dark animal not far behind Remus, and running straight towards him.

Remus barely had time to turn around before the animal hit him and sent him flying across the ground, soon it was on top of him and pinning him to the ground. Remus was so terrified he almost didn't make out the sound of James and Sirius yelling various jinxes and hexes at the animal to no avail. The animal -which Remus had made out to be a large dog- opened it's mouth and bore down on Remus who prepared for the worst but was met by instead of teeth, a wet tongue licking the side of his face.

"WHAT THE RUDDY HELL IS GOING ON BACK THERE? HEY, YOU TWO GEROFF HIM." The next thing Remus knew he'd struggled out from underneath the dog and Hagrid was standing a disheveled James and Sirius who seemed to have given up trying to hex the dog and instead climbed on and starting punching at the poor thing which was now looking quite confused as it slung over to hide behind Hagrid.

"What... in the name.. of Merlin just happened?" Remus happened.

"We saved you, from that, that thing!" James exclaimed and pointed towards the now whimpering dog.

"Savin'? He didn't need savin' Fang ere just got a lil' o'erexcited in greetin' him," Hagrid patted the dog reassuringly and his great tail began to thump, surely destroying an plants that had the misfortune to be in its path.

"That's your pet?" Sirius asked in disbelief. Hagrid nodded. "Oh um, well sorry about that... we thought were were being heroic.. " He trailed off, for once looking a little embarrassed.

"S'nothing, just a little misunderstandin'," Hagrid replied and began to walk back towards the castle leaving Remus, James and Sirius to hurry to keep up with his long strides.

They walked in silence to the edge of the forest until Sirius leaned in to whisper in Remus' ear. "I reckon we're mates now."

"And what would make you believe that?" Remus raised his eyebrows.

"We survived a near death experience together!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Right.. except we were never actually in any danger." Remus pointed out.

"But we could have been!" James interjected, coming to the aide of his best mate.

"And if that were the case I would certainly be dead." Remus said.

"Geez, don't be such a pessimist, Ringo."

Remus groaned "With friends like you Black it'll be hard to be anything else."

****Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places or events in this story. It all belongs to the Harry Potter Franchise and JK Rowling****


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